SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

Dashboards

Presented By David Dixon

February 25, 2009

Session Agenda

• How to Design and Build in Xcelsius
• Dashboard Builder Integration
• SAP BusinessObjects Mobile
• Conclusion

© 2008 Inforte Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 2

What is a Dashboard?

Dashboard ≠ Portal ≠ Scorecard ≠ Report
Dashboard Types
Xcelsius

Ad-hoc
Repetitive
“Interactive”
Interactive
“At-a-glance”
At a glance

Delivery Analysis
Operational
Management


How to use Xcelsius

1. Use f b ildi
1 U for building at-a-glance d hb
t l dashboards and presentations th t
d d t ti that
tell a story
2. Have the business to mock-up the story they want to tell using
the tool themselves
3. Leverage your Excel-based financial models in Xcelsius to help
illustrate a story via “what-if” analysis
4. Have IT decide on how they want to leverage the many data
connectivity options in Xcelsius

4

Before You Start

• Xcelsius is an easy-to-use authoring tool for story-telling
easy to use story telling
(communication and presentation)
– As a result, upfront business design is an important
activity
y
• Visual Design (For best presenting KPIs)
• Financial Modeling In Excel (For Simulations)
– Secondary (but also important!) is IT design
• Parent-Child Interactivity in a Portal environment
• Data Connectivity Options
• After your are familiar with the tool s functions and features
tool’s
you need to start work with a whiteboard or napkin


The Xcelsius Design Layers in an SAP Environment

Deployment Design

Visual Design
Vi lD i
Color
Legend

Financial Model Design
Role Role
of Biz of IT

Data Connectivity Design
y g

SAP Design


Deployment Design Considerations

Decide on you want access Xcelsius:
1.
1 SAP NetWeaver Portal
2. Non-SAP Portal (like MS Sharepoint)
3. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder
4.
4 SAP BusinessObjects Wid t
Bi Obj t Widgets
5. SAP BusinessObjects InfoView
6. MS Office
7. Adobe PDF

Consider the impacts it has on Xcelsius Design
1. Breaking apart Xcelsius files into parent-child dashboards
2. Integrating Xcelsius and other SAP BusinessObjects tools
via the “OpenDoc” interface


Simple Deployment Options

• Easy to embed in Web Pages MS Office and Adobe PDF
Pages,
• Easily deploys to BOE
• Requires Flash Player to run
• Live connections are not lost, irrespective of where it is
lost
deployed


Visual Design Considerations - Selectors


Visual Design Considerations - Charts


Six key ingredients to a good management dashboard

1. Well-defined and accepted key performance indicators
Well defined
(KPIs) or operational metrics
2. Comparative information (relative versus absolute
measures)
– Targets or Thresholds
– History or Forecast
– Peer-to-peer or External Benchmarks
P E lB h k
3. At-a-glance summaries and exceptions
4. Organization and categorization
g g
5. Intuitive mechanisms and consistent conventions
6. Job-at-hand or role-relevant (co-create with the business!)


Examples of Visual Design Principles

• Maximizing Edward Tufte’s “Data-Ink Ratios”
• Minimizing Stephen Few’s “Chart Junk”


Heat Map of Screen Real Estate and Visual Traffic

• Don’t Waste Valuable Screen Space with “Chart Junk”
• Upper left and center areas most abused…

Most Important Neutral

Important

Neutral Least Important


Financial Model Design Considerations

Take you
Xcelsius
Dashboard to
the next level
with “what if”
simulations
(build off an
Excel-based
model)


Data Connectivity Design

• Through direction BOE and SAP integration
– Query as a Web Service
– Live Office
• Or alternative development-oriented approaches
– Web Services (ABAP or other programming
language)
– XML Data (XML Maps or Direct XML)
– Portal Data (ex. Sharepoint interactivity)
– Adobe Techniques
• Flash Variables
• FS Command
• LCDS Connections
– External application (Custom coding)
• Crystal Report Data Consumer is for embedding
Xcelsius into Crystal Reports


SAP Design

• OLAP Universes and QaaWS
Q
• Live Office, Crystal Reports and SAP Drivers
• Custom Web Service
• Scheduling versus live data connection


Know the Difference Between Design-Time and Run-Time

Excel is only needed during design-time and not at run-time!

Design Run
Time Time


Xcelsius Functionality

• Xcelsius delivers interactive analysis in an
easy to understand format
– Expressive visualizations facilitate faster
decision-making by business users
– High degree of visual control and easy-
to-use i
interactivity options
ii i
• Queries are built outside of Xcelsius as part
of the Connectivity Tier (i.e. Live Office,
QaaWS and Adobe LifeCycle Data Services)
y )
– Push data handling and business logic to
the server (away from Excel)
• Best Practices include
– D t pre-aggregation and slicing avoiding
Data ti d li i idi
duplicate keys and using filters
• Drilldowns in Xcelsius are possible but must
be pre-defined and put on the canvas


Building Logic in Xcelsius

• Excel Functions
• Data Insertion Types
• Status Keys


Data Freshness Options

• Refresh Button
• On Load
• Time Interval
• Trigger Cell
– With Selectors


Session Agenda

• Conclusion


How to use Dashboard Builder

1.
1 If Xcelsius is a picture then use Dashboard Builder as the frame
to mix and match BI content
2. Use Dashboard Builder as an easy-to-use alternative to SAP
Portals
3. Use Dashboard Builder to help create a seamless dashboard
between Xcelsius (for telling a story) and Web Intelligence (for
finding the story)

22

Versus how to use SAP NetWeaver VC

1. Use SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer for model-driven
application development – not just for dashboards but
transactional screens as well
2. Use it as part of the broader SAP NetWeaver Composition
Environment for integration with Guided Procedures,
g ,
Webdynpro, Adobe Flash Islands, and SAP NetWeaver Portal
for building true “composite applications”

23

Versus how to use BI Widgets

1. Use it as a desktop alternative to Dashboard Builder or SAP
NetWeaver Portal for Web Intelligence and Xcelsius content
2. Use it for self-service desktop-based dashboards deployed
incrementally instead of a “big-bang” or “one-stop-shop”
corporate dashboard implementation

24

Integrating reporting and analysis with a platform suite

Reporting and Analysis is not just a spectrum but a closed loop
inter-relationship enabled by an integrated toolset

Starting context for exploration

Analysis
Reporting
• Information Discovery
If ti Di
• Information Delivery
If ti D li
• Data-Driven
• Format-Driven
• Ad-Hoc
• Repeatable

Communicate findings

Drilling Down and Across the SAP BusinessObjects Suite

Demo


Xcelsius Integration Options

• Xcelsius can be a standalone dashboard or be mashed up in
mashed-up
another tool such as:
– Crystal Reports
– SAP BusinessObjects BI Widgets
– SAP NetWeaver CE Visual Composer
– SAP NetWeaver Portal iView
– SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder
• While SAP NetWeaver CE Visual Composer is IT and SAP-
centric, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Builder is Business and
BOBJ-centric
• Integration of the web-based tools is done via URL commands
web based
– In the SAP BusinessObjects world this BOE capability is
called “OpenDoc” and is important for Dashboard drilldowns


Integrating Xcelsius into Dashboard Builder

• Inside of Dashboard Builder, an Xcelsius source analytic can pass data
and interact with the following target analytics:
– Xcelsius
– Web Intelligence
– Crystal Reports
– Desktop Intelligence
• This is called “content linking” and requires pre-configuration in
Xcelsius
– To get Xcelsius-to-Xcelsius integration to work, a Portal Data
Connection must be configured in both source and target files
• In the source a connection type of “Provider” must be
maintained and in the target type “Consumer”
g yp
– To get Xcelsius-to-WebI/Crystal/DeskI integration to work, a FS
Command Connection must be configured only in the source
• Once configured, the content is linked in Dashboard Builder by
specifying
specif ing the source and target
so ce ta get


Xcelsius Portal Data Connection Configuration

• The data that can be passed from source to target can either be
a cell row or table controlled by the “Range Type” with
cell, Range Type
spreadsheet binding via the “Range”


Xcelsius FS Command Connection Configuration

• You must use the FSCommand ‘queryparams’ (Flash Script) to
pass openDocument parameters


Creating the Context Links in Dashboard Builder

• In Dashboard
Builder “Edit Mode”
click on “Content
Linking” and simply
specify source and
target analytic from
your dashboard


Session Agenda

• Conclusion


SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Functions and Features

• Set up a default document or folder that opens automatically whenever you log in
• Change how results are filtered by modifying prompt values and refresh reports to
retrieve the most up-to-date data
• View results using zoom and navigational shortcuts, drill on results to analyze detailed or
summary data and navigate to related documents via hyperlinks on reports
• Receive alerts and take follow-up actions by clicking on report cells to launch an SMS,
phone call or email
• Save and consult documents offline to mitigate network interruptions and minimize
communication costs


SAP BusinessObjects Mobile Infrastructure Setup

• Deploy quickly and easily
• Immediately access i f
I di t l information f
ti from any mobile device
bil d i
• Leverage the security infrastructure of BOE
• Remote access to device-specific content in either Web Intelligence,
Crystal Reports or Dashboard Builder analytics


Session Agenda

• Conclusion


Conclusion

Most of the work around Xcelsius is in the business mockup and
integration into other tools
When designing Xcelsius visualizations, consider the components
needed, the interactivity desired and data sources that will be
employed
Dashboard Builder and Xcelsius complement each other. One is
used to “mash-up” content while the other is to produce
visualizations


SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

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